Phoenix Suns Blog – Page 38 – NBA Blog

Suns beat 76ers to end six-game skid

Luis Scola and the Phoenix Suns have watched a lot of late leads vanish. On Wednesday, they found a way to hold on.

Scola scored 19 of his 21 points in the second half and the Suns beat the Philadelphia 76ers 95-89 to snap a six-game losing streak.

”It’s only one win but we needed one win,” Scola said…

Dragic added 20, Shannon Brown scored 12, and Marcin Gortat had 11 points and 14 rebounds for the Suns…

Holliday had 16 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for his second career triple-double for the 76ers, who are 2-7 in the second half of back-to-back games. Wright and Thaddeus Young had 14 points apiece for Philadelphia…

Scola has scored 20 or more in three straight games. … Phoenix has won five of its past seven at home. . The Sixers are six games into a season-high, eight-game holiday road trip.

— Reported by Jonathan Dalton of the Associated Press

Clippers beat Suns to run win streak to 13 games

The Los Angeles Clippers are starting to make easy victories look routine.

Blake Griffin scored 23 points, Chris Paul had 17 points and 13 assists and the Clippers extended a franchise record with their 13th consecutive victory, 103-77 over the Phoenix Suns on Sunday night.

Reserve Jamal Crawford added 22 points for the Clippers, who won in Phoenix for the first time since April 17, 2007. Los Angeles’ overall win streak is an NBA season best and its six straight road victories are also a franchise best.

”We’re just taking care of business right now,” Griffin said. ”To be honest, we’re not really concerned with ‘You haven’t won here since then’ or ‘You haven’t won this many games in a row.’ ”We hear it all but we’re about just getting these wins and if they come within a streak or when we haven’t won somewhere, that’s fine.”

The Clippers have won by an average of 13 points and boast four victories of 20 or more points during their streak…

Jared Dudley scored 19 points, Luis Scola had 11 and Markieff Morris added 10 for the Suns, who have dropped two straight after winning four in a row…

Paul either scored or assisted on all but one basket over the final five minutes of the first quarter. … The Clippers matched a franchise record by holding their eighth straight opponent below 43 percent shooting.

— Reported by Jonathan Dalton of the Associated Press

Suns come from behind to beat Kings

The Phoenix Suns couldn’t seem to make a shot from anywhere, struggled defensively and gave up too many offensive rebounds while falling behind by 19 points in the first half.

No problem. Big comebacks are their specialty.

Shannon Brown scored 14 of his 22 points in third quarter to bring Phoenix back, Jared Dudley had 20 points and the Suns added to their list of comebacks by beating the Sacramento Kings 101-90 Monday night…

The Suns were back to their fall-behind-big ways against Sacramento, out of sorts at both ends in the first half, drawing boos from the home crowd and plenty of stomping along the sideline by Gentry.

Phoenix looked like a different team in the second half, working the ball around for open shots on offense, playing better defense and getting to the glass better…

Marcin Gortat had 14 points, 13 rebounds and six blocked shots. Luis Scola gave the Suns his usual hustle while scoring 14 points and dishing out a career-high 10 assists. Dudley hit a couple of big 3-pointers in the fourth quarter when the Kings tried to rally…

Aaron Brooks added 12 points for Sacramento, which had a 51-38 rebounding advantage, including 18 on the offensive glass…

Hitting the shots that weren’t falling early, Phoenix went on an 18-4 run midway through the third quarter, going up 61-58 after Brown hit three straight shots, including a 3-pointer as he fell into Sacramento’s bench.

— Reported by John Marshall of the Associated Press

Magic hand Suns 7th straight loss

A smooth rookie led the Orlando Magic to a successful end of a long road trip.

Andrew Nicholson scored nine of his career-high 19 points in the fourth quarter and the Magic pulled away to hand the Phoenix Suns their seventh loss in a row, 98-90 on Sunday night.

”I am going out there playing hard,” he said. ”They are just trusting me.”

The 6-foot-9 first-round draft pick from St. Bonaventure made 9 of 11 shots and grabbed nine rebounds, also the best of his young career…

J.J. Redick scored 17 of his 20 points in the first half for the Magic at the end of a 3-2 trip.

Shannon Brown scored 17 and Jared Dudley 15 for the Suns, who were without starting point guard Goran Dragic due to illness…

The Magic extended it to 57-48 with the first two baskets of the second half. The Suns scored the next 11 to go up 59-57 on Gortat’s turnaround 13-footer. The run eventually reached 19-4 with Brown leading the way. He scored 10 in the outburst, including a pair of 3s. The last one came over the outstretched arms of 7-foot Nikola Vucevic to put Phoenix up 67-61 with 4:16 left in the third.

— Reported by Bob Baum of the Associated Press

Clippers beat Suns 117-99 for 5th straight win

The bench bailed out the Clippers again.

Jamal Crawford led a fourth-quarter rally with 13 of his 21 points, and Los Angeles beat Phoenix 117-99 on Saturday, winning its fifth in a row while sending the Suns to their season-worst sixth straight loss.

”Thank the bench because the starters were struggling,” Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. ”They got us off to a bad start again. Our starters get into this energy on the offense and not on the defense. This game easily could have gone the other way.”

Blake Griffin added 24 points and a career-best four steals, and Chris Paul had 16 points and 11 assists, but the Clippers’ reserves carried them. Crawford made all four of his free throws to extend his streak to 55 in a row since Nov. 3…

Michael Beasley scored 21 points off the bench, and Shannon Brown added 19 for Phoenix, which hadn’t lost six in a row since March 3-12, 2009…

Luis Scola scored 10 in a row for the Suns and finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds.

— Reported by Beth Harris of the Associated Press

Zach Randolph drops 38 and 22 on Suns

The Memphis crowd was on its feet, the chants resonating through FedExForum in the final two minutes of overtime.

”Z-Bo! Z-Bo! Z-Bo!” the faithful hollered, acknowledging the dominance of forward Zach Randolph in a Grizzlies comeback.

Randolph set season highs with 38 points and 22 rebounds to carry the Grizzlies down the stretch for a 108-98 overtime victory over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night.

Randolph was 15 of 22 from the field and dominated in the latter stages of the fourth quarter and most of overtime. He also had three blocks, two in overtime, as Memphis outscored the Suns 14-4 in the extra period, with all the Suns’ points coming at the foul line…

Randolph acknowledged the performance was his best since the 2011 playoff run. Last year, he was stymied physically after a knee injury early on caused him to miss a good portion of the season…

Goran Dragic led the Suns with 19 points and seven assists. Luis Scola scored 16 and grabbed eight rebounds. Jared Dudley finished with 13 points and Jermaine O’Neal scored 12 for Phoenix, which lost its fourth straight.

— Reported by Clay Bailey of the Associated Press

Knicks beat Suns, stay perfect at home

Rasheed Wallace delivered a hard whack to Luis Scola, then some hard words to the referees.

These New York Knicks won’t let anybody have it easy at Madison Square Garden, not even the officials.

Carmelo Anthony scored 34 points and the Knicks ran their best home start in 20 years to 7-0, withstanding Wallace’s ejection after a mere 1:25 of playing time to beat the Phoenix Suns 106-99 on Sunday.

Phoenix had won its last two at MSG but the Knicks have finally figured out under coach Mike Woodson that home-court games are not to be wasted. They are 18-1 in the regular season here since he took over last March, jumping on their last few opponents from the start…

Raymond Felton had 23 points, seven assists and no turnovers for the Knicks, who last won seven straight at Madison Square Garden to open a season when they started 9-0 in 1992-93. The point guard was hurting after the game, saying he was going to get an MRI on his swollen left hand…

[Tyson] Chandler finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds as the Knicks improved to 12-4 overall, a half-game behind Miami for the best record in the Eastern Conference. They got off to a good start in December after winning 11 in November for the first time since a 12-victory November in 1972 on the way to their last NBA championship…

Marcin Gortat had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Suns, who dropped their third straight and fell to 1-4 on their season-high, six-game road trip that ends Tuesday in Memphis. Shannon Brown scored 17 points.

— Reported by Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press

Phoenix Suns assign guard Kendall Marshall to D-League

The Phoenix Suns have assigned guard Kendall Marshall to the Bakersfield Jam of the NBA Development League, the club announced today. Suns Player Development Coordinator Lindsey Hunter will accompany Marshall to Bakersfield.

Marshall, the Suns’ first-round selection (13th overall) in the 2012 NBA Draft, has appeared in six games this season for Phoenix.

Luis Scola looking to expand shooting range

The Suns have always been known as a 3-point shooting team.

Luis Scola, not so much.

“I want to add 3-point shot to my game,” he said. “I feel confident the whole preseason. I just made one in preseason but I was feeling confident. I just need to keep working at it. It’s not going to happen overnight. I never shoot 3s before in my career. We’ll see how it goes.”

So far, it’s gone quite well—at least through one game.

Wednesday night against the Warriors, Scola hit as many 3s as he had in his previous 386 games combined. He made 1-of-2 and is now 2-for-19 in his career but a sparkling 2-for-3 all-time against Golden State.

— Reported by Craig Grialou of Arizona Sports

Suns forward Michael Beasley working to improve his defense

It is out with the old (Grant Hill turned 40 on Friday) and in with the new (Beasley is 23) for the Suns at small forward, where Beasley is expected to take the starting role Hill held for the past five seasons. Beasley is learning two positions because of his size (6 feet 10, 235 pounds) and athleticism at power forward.

That transition has been smooth on offense, but his attention and focus, two areas he has lacked as a pro, have been on defense.

“This is the first year I really applied 100 percent to the defensive side,” Beasley said. “I’m not really worried about the offense. Offense, I’m just trying to learn the plays. Defense, I’m just trying to be aggressive, trying to kind of guard two people at one time, trying to learn both positions and trying to stay on the glass as much as I can.”

In between two-a-day sessions during training camp at the University of California-San Diego, Beasley said he has been watching video of his defense.

— Reported by Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic